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Boohbahs
The Boohbahs'' are a group of furry "atoms" of energy and the titular characters of the show. Bio After being born out of five spoon-beds inside of a luminous Boohball at the beginning of each episode, these five fat, energetic, fuzzy alien-like characters are charged to life, dancing and flying away. They enjoy to do many sorts of physical activity, like jumping, bumping, shaking, spinning, rocking, bending, bouncing, and flying, and are powered by the laughter of children playing with them. They are also very hyperactive, and thus delight in making sounds like squeaking, raspberries, and squeals. The Boohbahs also expel air a lot, and several times, end up running into each-other, falling over, or leaving the ground, and "breaking wind" (releasing air). Multiple flatulent air-bellowing sounds can be heard whenever this happens. They also expel air to fly, similar to air coming out of a balloon. Whenever the Boohbahs fly, they usually assemble into a circle and emit a coloured musical note toward either the Boohball or their dancing place, which sends them into a central point. Appearance A Boohbah is easily identifiable by its extremely overweight body. This body is filled with thick, fuzzy, ruffled, curly layers of fur, which shimmers, sparkles, and twinkles with tiny lights. They have fuzzy guts around their stomach area, have cone-shaped arms and legs, and there are three-pointed hands at the tips of their arms. The back of their stomach is coloured a darker strip of the base colour (see below). Above the stomach is an invisible, furry neck ring, as well as an arch-shaped head, which can retract into aforementioned neck. The head contains two big, shifty, brown eyes, which the Boohbahs, not having the ability to speak, use to communicate, which click when they move. Above their eyes are ten eyebrows, which the Boohbahs light up to communicate; in between their eyes is a tint of nose. List of Boohbahs Below is a list of all five ''canon Boohbahs. Like Anne Wood's other "alien-like" characters, the Teletubbies, they are each a different colour, which is the only way to tell each one apart. Throughout the different segments, the Boohbahs' fur colours differ between darker, brighter (normal), or lighter shades of the base colour. The Boohbahs are: * Humbah (yellow) * Jingbah (hot pink) * Jumbah (turquoise blue) * Zing Zing Zingbah (yellow-orange) * Zumbah (purple) Characteristics Each Boohbah is energetic and hyperactive. They are often very active, mostly doing dances, exercises, and shaping up while awake. According to Anne Wood, the Boohbahs represent children's energy and children's overall enjoyment of movement. The Boohbahs, because they do not have a mouth, have only three ways to express emotion: * Flash their eyebrows and move their eyes around. This usually happens when a Boohbah is unsure or "curious" about what the "children" voiceovers want them to do. * Move their eyes around. This happens very frequently; whether it be when the Boohbahs are looking at what they or another Boohbah are/is doing, when they are looking where they are headed for, etc. The eye "trick" can coincide with a sense of confusion, curiosity, surprise, shock, or suspicion, making those some of the very few expressions the Boohbahs display. * Retract their heads into their necks. The Boohbahs do not have eyelids, and as a result do this to close their eyes. This happens when the Boohbahs wish to hide what they are seeing from sight, among other uses. The sounds the Boohbahs make when they move, according to Anne Wood, are all part of their fun and contributes to their infectious appeal to children who are drawn irresistibly to get up and dance about with them. Habitat The Boohbahs live inside of a large, colourful dome named the Boohzone. This wide, bubble-filled space contains a rainbow road, which spirals down to a spot where children give presents to the Storypeople and the Boohbahs play. Above this spot is a sparkly, crystalline ball christened the Boohball, where the Boohbahs travel in and subsequently live. The Boohbahs' beds are five white, fuzzy "charger" pods. These are where they sleep in and are born out of, and they also recharge energy inside while they travel the world. The pods, which look like pastel-coloured ladles, are linked to energy-current branches, which in turn are on a spinning base which whirls them around while the Boohbahs recharge or sleep. One can alternatively say that the pods resemble fig halves. Trivia * According to Wikipedia, the Boohbahs being fat (as well as their species name) is reminiscent of the bouba/kiki effect. This means that someone's mouth can round up while pronouncing the word "boohbah", not unlike the characters' obese stomachs. * The inspiration for the Boohbahs' eyebrows was a blown-up postcard picture of a girl with two arches of dots embedded over her eyes, which itself is very similar to what the eyebrows themselves look like. * The Boohbahs' heads look very similar to Kewpie dolls, which too have an arch-shaped head and large eyes. However, the Boohbahs do not have a nose, and their eyes are much bigger than that of a Kewpie. * It is debatable whether or not the Boohbahs' apparent habit of releasing air and making air-bellowing noises can be considered a form of flatulence; many people watching may consider that they are farting, as the sounds they make whenever they jump, bump, fall, bend over (see the "Folding" dance), or take-off do indeed sound flatulent. ** However, it must be noted that these same type of noises can be heard in other (un)-related instances; the Boohbahs lifting and lowering their legs in the "Scrunch Up Small and Stretch Out Big" and the "Lift Your Feet" end dances and they wobbling their stomach fat in the "Wobbling" end dance are some examples. It is very clear it sounds like they are blowing raspberries in these instances, while the other examples above make it more clear that it is flatulence. ** On the now-defunct "expert questions-and-answers" section on the PBS Parents website, Anne Wood considers the flatulence to be the sound the Boohbahs make when they begin flying, similar to air blasting out of a balloon if let go without anything to keep air from escaping. * The Boohbahs are the only characters to appear in every episode, and also have the most screen-time. * Although Boohbah is meant to get viewers at home to exercise, all five Boohbahs are, ironically, overweight. It is unknown why this is, but most likely to make the characters big enough to attract small viewers' attention. Category:Characters